


Colleagues

by Crazy Holtzy (SlayerWitchCarpenter)



Series: Ghostly one shots [2]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Unrequited Love, and its unrequited, first holtzbert fic, yikes sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 06:32:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8152418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlayerWitchCarpenter/pseuds/Crazy%20Holtzy
Summary: “These are your colleagues?” “Yes, yes. And we’re dating.” In which Gorin asks about Erin, and Holtz remembers their latest date.orI loved the deleted scenes so much, if you've watched them, you know what's coming, since the dialogue was taken direct from the clip and the actual film.





	

It had only been a month, but it was the longest Holtzmann had ever been in a relationship. So many of her relationships had lasted a night, much to Holtz’s confusion. College relationships had usually begun and ended before Holtz knew what had happened. Girls liked to get with her on nights out, drunk at college parties, relieve stress before an exam, as a rebound, Holtz had experienced them all. The most common was experimentation.

But that wasn’t true with Erin. Erin was different. Erin was a real relationship. Erin wasn’t with Holtz for sex, she was with her for Holtz. Something Holtz didn’t think was truly possible, not after college, university, and her time after. Not until she met Erin. Sweet, sweet Dr Erin Gilbert, who truly liked Holtz for being Holtz. Crazy German/Dracula/Dr Frankenstein accent and all.

“I’m thinking dinner. Somewhere nice.” Holtz spoke through the welding mask, prompting Erin to look up from her computer, shifting her gaze off her and Abby’s second book and over to the engineer, welding the faraday cage back onto Patty’s proton pack, ripped off after an altercation with a particularly pissed off ghost.

“What?” Erin asked, unable to hear Holtz over the roar of the torch, the music blasting from the speakers and the welding mask over Holtz’s face. Turning off her screen, Erin slid out from behind her desk, swiftly standing from the office chair and making her way over to Holtz’s workspace. Erin had moved her desk up to the second floor in order to supervise Holtz. _Someone’s got to be there to use the extinguisher in case Holtz is on fire._ It was obvious the engineer couldn’t hear her either, since she kept welding, oblivious to Erin’s question. Erin flipped the switch on the speakers, the music dying out and Holtz’s torch soon followed, the welding mask flipping up to show Holtz’s face as she looked over to the speakers, brows furrowed, in confusion as to why the music had stopped. Erin’s own brows furrowed as she realised the engineer was wearing her yellow glasses under her yellow goggles, under the welding mask. _How does she see?_

“Oh, Erin, hi there. So, what do you think?” Holtz placed the blowtorch down, pulling her green rubber gloves off, leaving her fingerless leather driving gloves on, which had been on under them. Ern had once questioned Holtz’s insane use of layers, but Holtz had just winked in (a lack of) response. Erin gently shook her head, bringing herself back to reality and to the question in hand.

“I couldn’t hear you. What did you ask?” Erin watched as Holtz’s eyes slowly got larger as the engineer tipped her head back, taking in a deep breath through her nose. That usually meant Holtz was repeating something that was hard for her to say the first time.

“Lotus Leaf? Tomorrow? For dinner?” There was probably a lot more words the first time, but there were enough included for Erin to be able to deduce what Holtz was trying to ask. It had been a month since they caught their first ghost, and Erin was hoping for a group meal to celebrate.

“That sounds wonderful Holtzmann. Though, maybe not there? I don’t think I’m allowed back in.” Erin gulped, twisting her mouth into a grimace, recalling her yelling and basically stealing their tablecloth, ruining the Mayor’s dinner. Holtz extended her bottom jaw and emitted a low humming noise, which Erin had learned from Abby that that meant Holtz was thinking.

“I’m sure I can find somewhere else. How do you feel about the Tavern on the Green?” Holtz pulled her goggles from her face, planting them up on her hairline, straightening her glasses underneath, sniffing loudly and pulling her face into a smile as she leaned on her elbows and looked up at Erin.

“That sounds amazing. Tomorrow at 7?” Erin asked, pulling a diary from her pocket, earning a raised eyebrow from Holtz, as she took a pen from the other pocket and wrote it in. Holtz kept all her dates and notes organised in her head, explaining why she often forgot to be somewhere.

“Tomorrow at 7.”

* * *

 

7:15. Erin sighed and leaned back in her chair, the waiter looking over at her again, with a sorrowing look as she pretended not to keep looking at the door. Just as her watch ticked over to 7:16 she could hear sirens getting louder. Very un-American sounding sirens. _Please don’t turn up on the Ecto-2_. Erin opened her eyes and turned to look through the window, seeing the yellow lights of the Ecto-2 before hearing the roar of Holtz’s motorbike. In fact, _everyone_ could hear it. _Everyone_ was looking out the window. _Everyone_ watched Holtz almost kick the door down as she ran in. _Everyone_ saw Holtz. Holtz. In a suit. Holtz, who was waving at her from the door, making her way loudly over to her. Erin felt a little like sliding down in her chair, ignoring all the eyes on her. Of course, she was a Ghostbuster, she was used to the attention, but so many years of high school had told her attention wasn’t a good thing. But before she could move, Holtz was dropping herself into the chair opposite her.

“Sorry I’m late. I just had an idea, I had to get it down. I’m just _so close_ to getting that proton shotgun working.” Holtz grabbed a menu off the table next to her, shooting finger guns at the two men on that table, who were clearly trying to have a quiet date.

“Holtzmann—”

“After the proton shotgun, I’m totally thinking about making proton swords. Like, imagine it! It would be so cool!”

“Holtz—”

“Of course, I’d have to make them have a source of energy, unless I wired them to the proton packs. But how to stop the proton stream at a certain length is really stumping me, if I can just—”

“Jillian!” Erin’s shout got Holtz’s attention, who put down the menu and looked, wild eyed, into Erin’s eyes. “Thank you. Where are the others?”

“…They’re not coming?” Holtz answered, her statement flicking up into a question at the end, confused by Erin’s question. Erin opened her mouth to reply, unable to as the waiter came over to the table, finally able to take an order from Erin now that Holtz had arrived. Abby and Patty might not have been coming, but Holtz sure ordered enough to fill the four person table.

* * *

 

Holtz and Erin strolled into the fire house at the same time the next day, Holtz shooting off a two-fingered salute to Erin as Erin split off to the kitchen and Holtz bounded up the stairs two at a time. She was no longer allowed to climb _up_ the fireman’s pole, after an incident including Holtz, Kevin, and 16 pints of milk. Abby looked between the two and pushed away from her desk, following Holtz up to Holtz’s lab.

“Hey, what’s up with you today?” Abby caught Holtz before she disappeared into her lab, catching her by the arm of the blazer she wore yesterday.

“Slept with Erin last night.” Holtz smirked, trying to keep the cockiness out of her voice as she spoke, pulling her arm free from Abby and stepping back into her own personal space. Abby’s reaction was mostly non-verbal, a lot of mouth opening and closing, a lot of huffing, the beginning of a lot of different words, and a _lot_ of hand gestures.

“What?!” Eventually forced its way out of Abby’s mouth, ripping Holtz out of her own memories.

“I slept at hers last night. We went on a date and she let me sleep in her bed. We didn’t have sex, we just laid together. It was perfect.” Holtz smiled, a real genuine, wide smile. Abby relaxed, her initial shock winding away as she saw the look on Holtz’s face. Pure happiness. Too many times she’d watched Holtz be crushed after a night out had her return in the clothes of the night before, after hearing a quick “Thanks. See you round I guess.” One too many times. Holtz deserved someone like Erin.

“Did you say date?” Abby asked, smiling herself. Holtz’s smiles were often contagious. Not her crazy smiles, her genuine happy smiles. Abby could never stop herself from smiling too. She didn’t want to. Her Holtzmann was happy, she was always going to be happy if Holtz is.

“Yeah. One month yesterday.” Holtz blushed. _Blushed_. Abby was pretty sure she’d never seen the engineer ever _blush_. Erin must make her really happy.

“I’m so happy for you. Oh, come here!” Abby enveloped Holtz in a bear hug, lifting the shorter woman off the floor gently before putting her back down. “Oh, you have a visitor. In the lab.”

* * *

“What a ding-a-ling. I forgot to introduce— this is my mentor. Dr Rebecca Gorin.” Holtz sidled up next to the tall woman, gripping gently at her lab coat like a child holds on to their mother’s coat.

“Wow, Dr Gorin, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Abby leaned forward, extending her hand to Dr Gorin, finally glad to meet the person Holtz was constantly talking about. The Dr Gorin who had practically raised Holtz from birth. She’d heard so much about her. But she hadn’t learned that Gorin didn’t shake hands. That, she was just finding out, as Holtz explained so, and Abby gently pulled her hand back and tried not to look disappointed, as Gorin turned back to Holtz, practically ignoring herself and Erin.

“This is reckless Jillian. All someone has to do is sneeze too hard and everyone in the building is going to disintegrate.” Abby and Erin watched on as Holtz acted like she was a child being told off, looking down at the gloves in her hand and breathing out an “I know.” Like a petulant child as a reply. “Do you know how powerful this is?” Gorin asked, motioning with her thumb at the containment field. Holtz just about mumbled out a reply, which sounded a lot like “I did bad.” To Erin and Abby, even accompanied with a shrug and all. “And I have never been more proud of you.” To Erin and Abby, that sounded like the reply of a mother, more proud than she’s ever been, and just from watching Holtzmann light up, they were sure that that’s exactly what was going through Holtz’s mind.

“Really?” Holtz breathed out in disbelief, collapsing into Gorin’s arms as the older woman nodded, patting her hard on the back. At first, Erin smiled, endeared by the spectacle in front of them, hearing Holtz talk about how much she loved Gorin, then slowly became worried as Holtz patted Gorin hard on the back, and Gorin kept saying “My sternum.” Over and over. 

“Oh, don’t break your mentor.” Abby reached out with a hand, quickly bringing it back to herself when she remembered Gorin didn’t like physical touch, and Holtz was deep in a moment. Abby and Erin each sighed in relief when Holtz parted from Gorin, sucking their sighs back in when they heard Gorin mention making the machine more powerful, and Holtz’s enthusiasm at ramping it up further.

“Do we need that safety light?” Gorin asked, pointing to the red light above the machine, Holtz pushing herself closer to Gorin, almost melding their bodies together.

“You’re scaring me, and I love it. I only put that on there for a party! Safety lights are for dudes!” Holtzmann laughed, Gorin spinning around to face her, nodding.

“Safety lights are for dudes.” She repeated, much to the worry of Erin and Abby.

“We shouldn’t have parties in here.” Erin threw in her first input of the day, deadpanning out over the joyous tones of Holtz and Gorin.

“It’s never going to be safe, why should we kid anyone?” Gorin turned to Holtz, once again ignoring Erin and Abby in favour of her mentee.

“We should be safe. Safety first.” Erin tried again, louder this time, as Abby watched on. This time, she actually got Gorin’s attention, even if she didn’t reply to Erin herself, but rather, again, to Holtz.

“These are your colleagues?” She asked, raising a perfect eyebrow as she looked at Holtz. Holtz was quick to reply, a smile lighting up her face.

“Yes, yes. And we’re dating.” She pointed to Erin, a smile on her face. A smile appeared too on Abby’s face and she breathed out a confirmation, and Abby was sure she even saw a twitch of a smile on Gorin’s face.

“No.” Erin’s brows furrowed, and Holtz’s eyebrows soon followed, followed by Abby and Gorin. “No, we’re not dating.” Whatever Erin said next was a blur to Holtz as the machine in her brain ground to a halt. As tiny brain Holtz hit the hard reset button, a small “Whoops.” Slipped from Holtz’s mouth. Her eyes went wide, her lower jaw extended, a low slurping sound emitted from her mouth as the wires of her brain reconnected themselves and her brain switched back on.

“Okay. Back to the drawing board on that one.” Holtz attempted to cover, with a hum and a quick laugh, that to anyone who had known her for as long as Abby and Gorin had, showed what Holtz was actually feeling, if the drop of her tight smile was anything to go by. Abby saddened instantly. It had happened again. Holtz thought she was in a relationship. But she wasn’t.

Again.

“Hey guys! Come up to the roof!” Patty yelled down from the roof, Erin running to join her, Abby slinging her arm over Holtz’s shoulders, nodding silently at her friend and smiling, pulling her along to the roof stairs.

“Dr Gorin, you coming?” Abby flung over her shoulder, not expecting any kind of reply.

“No.” She heard the reply, but was too focused on Holtz to reply to Gorin or acknowledge her answer.

“Come on Jillian. Let’s see what Patty wants to show us.” Abby softly whispers, disappearing upstairs, arm over Holtz’s shoulders, the other hand holding Holtz by the elbow. Holtz wasn’t a huge fan of contact she didn’t initiate, but Abby had always been able to swoop in and act as if Holtz was her own child. She just fell into the parental role. Like finding a dumpster baby. In fact, that was a little too close to what actually happened for Abby to draw metaphors from that scenario, after finding Holtz, at 26 years old, in a dumpster “looking for parts”. Not to say Abby wasn’t doing the exact same thing. Abby knew Holtz could bounce back, she always did. And maybe now, Erin would get a bit of perspective and realise that Holtz likes her back. To the point she thought they were already dating. But that was a situation for a different day. Today, Abby just wanted to hold Holtz as they looked over the New York skyline as it lit up in honour for them. Everything was going to be alright.

* * *

Downstairs, left alone in Holtz’s lab, Gorin supressed a sneeze.

“I almost killed us all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry :/
> 
> Follow me on tumblr and yell at me for this? servicetopholtzmann


End file.
